The advent of computer networks offers geographically distributed users unprecedented opportunities to interact with each other and to work together on content. One of the most widely accepted and heavily used networks is the Internet. The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks formed into a single world wide network. A user, through the Internet, can interactively transmit messages with users in different locations. Similarly, a user in one location can connect to files and libraries in other locations. Thus, the Internet provides versatile communications functions and acts like a universal library, providing electronic access to resources and information available from Internet sites throughout the world. Access to the Internet can be had from a wide range of locations and through a wide range of devices. For example, a user with a laptop computer and a modem may connect to the Internet through a telephone jack. Wireless Internet connections are also available.
Electronic commerce has emerged as primary use of the Internet. The global penetration of the Internet provides merchants with the capability to merchandise their products to substantial shopping audiences using an online merchant system. Online merchant systems enable merchants to creatively display and describe their products to shoppers using Web pages. Merchants can layout and display Web pages having content, such as text, pictures, sound and video, using HyperText Markup Language (HTML). Web shoppers, in turn, access a merchant's Web page using a browser, such as Microsoft Explorer or Netscape Navigator, installed on a client connected to the Web through an online service provider, such as the Microsoft Network or America OnLine. The browser interprets the HTML to format and display the merchant's page for the shopper. The online merchant system likewise enables shoppers to browse through a merchant's store to identify products of interest, to obtain specific product information and to electronically purchase products after reviewing product information.
Thus, the Internet is used to assist buyers and sellers in purchasing a variety of traditional goods and services. Novel methods of purchasing and selling have been developed, including cryptographic systems and methods for assuring authenticity of a signer of a transaction, electronic payment systems, and electronic auction systems and methods. Electronic commerce Internet sites typically allow remotely distributed users to interact via an Internet site, through which the users execute traditional commercial transactions online. Thus, the Internet typically offers convenience, but does not significantly alter the underlying transaction contexts.
However, the present online methods of selling services and goods generally do not account for the presence of uncertainty in the market for those goods or services. It is well recognized that a purchaser who purchases a good or service in advance of its need may be disappointed if the price falls, or if the need for the good or services disappears. A wide range of contingency planning measures are undertaken by buyers and sellers in markets that involve uncertainty. However, the Internet models of commerce generally ignore event-driven contingency planning and are therefore, in large part, unsatisfactory where the desire to purchase a good or service are primarily motivated by the outcome of an event certain in time.
An example of a market involving substantial uncertainty is the market for goods and services surrounding a sporting event, especially a sporting event in which the presence of particular teams is not known well in advance of the time of the event. One such event is the Super Bowl. National Football League Fans are notoriously loyal to particular teams, but the two particular teams that will appear in the Super Bowl are not known until two weeks before the game. A fan of a particular team may not wish purchase a game ticket, airfare, hotel or other accommodations unless his or her team will be in the game; that is, the fan's desire to attend the game is contingent on the outcome of a future event(s), namely the progression of a team through the earlier playoff games. In the present environment, hotels, air carriers and other transportation providers must often scramble to finalize arrangements for goods and services required by a particular group of people, the identity of which are not known until the occurrence of the contingency, i.e., the presence of a particular pair of teams in the Super Bowl. Moreover, under current business systems, the inability to identify customers until only a week or two before the event prevents certain purveyors from participating in the market in any effective way. For example, charter airlines may be significantly disadvantaged where fans need to be flown to the Super Bowl from cities for which the charter company does not have a regular route. For instance, despite the general ability of the charter companies to offer fares lower than commercial air carriers on less than 14 day notice, the ability to book passengers can be substantially hindered by the inability of the charter to penetrate the advertising market on short notice.